Russia accuses Ukraine of violating flight safety agreement

MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Russia accused Ukrainian authorities Wednesday of violating a bilateral agreement on air transportation and putting air travelers at risk.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian border service has banned the crews of Russian commercial planes leaving their aircraft after landing on Ukrainian territory.

This disrupted the timetable of work and rest of the planes' crews and violated international regulations on flight safety, the ministry said.

The ministry cited the most recent incident on March 24, when a second pilot of Russia's flagship Aeroflot airline was denied permission to leave the plane following its arrival at Kiev's Borispol International Airport.

"Russia insists on an unconditional end to that irresponsible practice by Ukraine, which jeopardizes the safety of commercial air transportation," the ministry said in an online statement.

Aeroflot is authorized by the Russian government to conduct regular commercial flights to Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow on Tuesday, highlighting the intergovernmental agreement on air transportation signed in 1994.

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